For those of you wondering, a letter and photos of the mystery chunk have been sent to the Campbell Soup Company. I’m waiting to hear their response, half expecting a standard form letter, half expecting a call from their attorneys. We’ll see what happens.
Pupusas are not the infantbearing slings worn by native American women. No, pupusas are to El Salvador what quesadillas are to the United States. None of the very divergent things called quesadillas found across the regions of Mexico are anything like the bland grilled-cheese-on-a-flavorless-flour-tortilla as we know it in the US. But that’s another story for another time.
We’re talking about pupusas: fresh masa dough and savory fillings like cheese, chorizo, meat and vegetables handpatted into a flat round disc about 8 inches in diameter, then griddled until crisp. Make the masa too thin, and the fillings can leak. Make the masa too thick, and it’s as clodgy and heavy as day old oatmeal.
That baby bear, just right balance point tips precipitously close on the too-thin side of the equation, and you’ll find it at Pupusería San Sivar, a wee, modest restaurant in an unassuming Costa Mesa strip mall. Proudly displayed on the door and wall sits their justly deserved Best Eats of OC 2005 award from the paper I occasionally write for, the OC Weekly
Seven classic flavors are offered. Can’t go wrong with revueltas con queso, frijol y chicharron: a mixed cheese, bean and pork filling. I heavily favor the ones here with chicharron. Pollo is a mildly seasoned shredded chicken meat, without cheese, which is only ok in my book. I’m partial to the squash with cheese, called calabazitas. Loroco is a pod-like vegetable whose shreds are sauteed and mixed with cheese. The cheese lets off an agreeable slick of oil, in the way a good New York pizza slice might ooze a little orange grease. Don’t let it harsh your mellow.
Pupusas de arroz, made of rice flour, cost 20 cents more than corn and are an unusual variation on the theme. The rice dough tastes plainer than the corn version, but its texture is phenomenally better in my opinion. Something about the gels and starches in rice give it the ability to crisp into a toasty, crunchy, browned crust.
Rice eating people the world over fight for the crisp brownies at the bottom of the rice cooker. Persians invert this browned crust in the dish called tadig. Japanese grill rice balls into yaki onigiri, and Italians fry rice balls into arancini. Koreans use a superheated stone pot to serve the rice dish calleddolsot bibimbap, which continually toasts your rice while you eat it. Rice’s ability to take on a browned crust makes its way to El Salvador in their most popular dish.
Salvadoran food doesn’t mandate chili heat like so many Mexican dishes, so the spicy variation of curtido, the requisite side dish of cabbage slaw is surprising, and good. Sweet is balanced with vinegar which has been infused with red chili flakes.
San Sivar makes their own horchata salvadorena in house. They flavor this version of the rice drink with ground sesame, cacao bean, pepitas, morro seed and cinnamon. Very unlike Mexican horchata, and definitely not from the concentrate that most restaurants use.
One last bit of advice. Eat pupusas as soon as they hit the table. The half life on these things is about 8 minutes, after which the crisp goes soggy, the starches in the dough stiffen, and the whole thing skids downhill fast and faceplants like your first time on a snowboard. Take out is a last resort, m’kay?
Pupusería San Sivar
1940 Harbor Blvd
Costa Mesa, CA
949-650-2952
What
the hell
is…
THIS?
It’s:
I’ll tell you what it’s not. It’s not supposed to be in a can of chicken noodle soup. Yes, I’m going to call the Campbell Soup Company. Before I contact them, I figured we’d have a little fun with it here first.
Dear Campbell Soup Co:
I recently found something chunky that shouldn’t belong in your Chunky soup. I took a poll on my website, and now think this nubbin is …. We’d like to hear your response.”
I’m leaving comments wide open for a few days at the risk of letting in the comment spammer scumbags. Any comments with a URL will be deleted as usual, unless it has something to do with this mystery.
Take a stab. What the hell?
When I visit my folks in New York, I’m only in town for a day or two, and like to hit some of favorite old Greenwich Village haunts: Mamoun’s for falafel and shewarma, Joe’s Pizza for some of the best slices in the city, maybe cross town and get some Italian pastries at Vesuvio Bakery.
Breaking my usual pattern, I chose to spend time with my parents. Must be getting family oriented in my old age or something. Dad wanted to take us to a Shanghainese place in Flushing that he’s been going to for years (without telling me or giving me an invite). Or maybe I was too busy running out the door for falafel.
I inhertited my instincts for finding good food from him, because his place turns out to be Joe’s Shanghai, internationally renowned for their soup dumplings, or xiao long bao. When we walked in, the manager greeted him by name. My dad. How about that?
Neon sign touts Joe’s specialty
The chefs form the dumplings with a bit of cold gelled broth in the filling, which liquifies into a hot soup after they’re steamed. It’s splashed with black vinegar & shredded fresh ginger and plopped atop a spoon to catch all the juice that spills out. Open carefully so the hot soup doesn’t scorch.
Pork and shrimp xiao long bao
The dumpling skin is medium thin and tender, with lots of rich soup inside. As with Peking duck, pastrami, or southern barbecue, seek out a specialist restaurant where every table is ordering that one thing, or you’ll wonder what the big wooptee-do is. If you need help locating a dumpling specialist in your city, stop by chowhound.com and ask on the approriate discussion board for your town.
Joe’s Shanghai
136-21 37th Ave
Flushing, NY
718-539-3838
(other locations in NYC as well)
In the greater LA area, I like Din Tai Fung, a Taipei based mini-empire whose various dumplings are all very good, if different than Joe’s. But let’s not split hairs over these differences right now. As with New York pizza, these fine distinctions among shops are important and you won’t understand until you understand, dig?
Din Tai Fung
1108 S. Baldwin
Arcadia, CA
626-574-7068
That segues into my lunch the day afterward. I continued breaking my usual NYC eating habits and spent the day in Brooklyn. I hit Di Fara’s pizza just as they opened. The legendary Dominic De Marco has made masterful pies for over 40 years. He stands at the pinnacle of New York pizza makers along with a very select group of pizzaiolos. If I have to explain New Yorkers’ obsession with pizza, you haven’t had the real thing. I nudge you to buy Ed Levine’s book, “Pizza: A Slice of Heaven.” It will guide you to the best New York pizza on your next visit.
Unassuming hole in the wall with world class food
The Legend at work. Note herbs growing in window pots.
Di Fara Pizza
1424 Avenue J
Brooklyn, NY
718-258-1367
In the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge lurks a French magician in a chilly lair, stirring a copper cauldron full of brown elixir. Ancient cobblestones line the row in front of the wizard’s shop, where ladies driving Saabs and Volvos visit.
Inside, the ladies’ eyes glaze over, captured by the gilded glint of glossy chocolate truffles, a spell as powerful as any in the enchanted city.
But beware the poor soul that touches lips to the plastic chalice protected with a paper covered sippy straw, for it takes its victims words and renders them rather like moo cows in heat. Inside this wicked chalice awaits… the Frozen Hot Chocolate!
Fast forward to the happy ending: magical fairytale chocolate shop. Fantastic truffles assortment. Chocolate covered corn flakes. Genius without pretense. And that frozen hot chocolate: thick, rich cocoa and chocolate flavors with just a touch of sugar sweetness. It’s fuller bodied, not as chilled and has fewer ice granules than the city’s other famous frozen hot chocolate served at Serendipity 3 on the Upper East Side.
Go. Fall in love.
Jacques Torres Chocolate
66 Water Street
Brooklyn, NY
718-875-9772
One other location in Manhattan, see their website
PS – This trip happened a month ago at this point, and I’ve had a chance to reflect on the differences between New York and California. Los Angeles has a high end patisserie called Boule that makes phenomenal chocolates, pastries, candies and even ice creams & sorbets that’ll blow your mind. As great a product as Jacques Torres, but served with a heap of annoying attitude. The entire store, the gift boxes, and even the website is done up in robin’s egg blue to evoke a Tiffany’s-like boutique feel. I asked them if I could take a photo of the chocolate display, because that’s what I do. Got the sneery look like “this is a boutique, daahling, a temple. You must not photograph it, for our souls will be stolen.”
Boule people: please take a cue regarding service from the friendly, unpretentious Jacques Torres people, like the girl who gladly posed for the frozen hot chocolate photo. I would also like to ask why you framed a letter of congratulations from Chef Daniel Boulud only to adorn the men’s bathroom with it. Does he know you put that in the crapper?
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